The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-12-20
SORE STRAITS OF THE KNIGHTS.
The General Executive Board Seriously
Cramped for Money.

The General Executive Board Seriously
Cramped for Money.
Philadelphia Special.
The organization of the knights of Labor is in
deplorable condition, and seems veritably to
be tottering to its fall. It is now ascertained
from q source of undsputed authority that the
receipts coming into the general treasury are not
sufficient to pay the regular running expenses
of the order.
The alarming decrease in the membership of
the order, the lapsing of hundreds of large and
influential assent ies. and the refusal by the
great body of Observation-Disclosures, who OPP
pose what they term the corrupt Powderly
ring" TO pay up their dues and assessments,
have reduced the income of the general treasury
in this city to one-fifth what it was a year ago;
and the grave apprehension is now rising in the
minds Of the administration leader that the
North Broad street palace itself will have to be
mortgaged in order to raise the money necessary
for urgent current expenses. The regular quar-
terly payments of per capita tax which will be
due Feb. TO- are depended upon by General Sec
rotary Litchman and General Treasurer Turner
as the means of liquidatng the debts already
contracted but as stated heretofore, the seces-
sionists, who constitute a large proportion OF
the membership have resolved to withhold this
tax, and thus starve out the general officers.
Still more to alarm and terrify the general Of
fcers the provisional committee of the secession
advocates In this city are clinging persistenty
to the charges preferred at the Minneapolis con-
veution against Messrs Powderly, Litchman
aud Hayes, namely. that they Incorporated
$500, 900 of the orders money during the last
year. and last week they determined again to
demand an itemzed account of the receipts and
expenditures, and, in the event of a refusal, to
bring the case into court in this CITY and openly
charge the general officers with theft and NAL
feasance in Office. This step will be taken
within the next few weeks at the furthest, and
it will be pushed with vIgor and determination.
When the general executive board met on
Monday last for the first time since the early
part of November, the startling information was
received by private wire that Mr. Powderly had
been stricken down suddenly with violent
hemorrhage The members of the board were
all in attendance, except Mr.. Powderly and Al
bert A. Carlton; and, as quorum was present,
they did not adjourn. Since then the board has
met each day and transacted the business
brought before it. The sessions will be contir-
ued next week
The dispatches concerning Mr.. Powderlys
home in Scranton are of the most varying tenor.
The most remarkable feature of the affair is the
reticence that is preserved on the subject at the
North Broad-street palace in this city. All in
formation is denied to visitors. Indeed,
strict is the secrecy which certain of the general
officers at present attempt to preserve that a
great deal of indignation is expressed by them
at the publication of the news in the daily pa
pers. This policy is said to be due to the infu-
ence OF John W. Hayes, who stands nearest to
Mr.. Powderly of all the members of the general
executive board.
Notwithstanding all these precautions the
part of his so-called friend, it is now beyond
doubt that Mr. Powderly is a broken hearted
man. The internal discussions within the order
have worried him more than his friends will ad-
NIT. Perhaps the saddest disappointment he
has received since he became general master
workman experienced in his recent lecture
trip through the manufacturing centers of New
England. At the meetings which he addressed,
he found that the people showed interest in
the order, and the audiences that gathered to
hear him were utterly uusympathetic and
small as to be completely disheartening to the
speaker.